The Song of the Little Road

Directed by Priyanka Kumar.

United States/Canada 68 Minutes

Priyanka Kumar has compiled a touching tribute to neglected Indian film genius Satyajit Ray which eventually wins over even those like me who had never heard of him.

As one who pleads ignorance of the subject, I thought I was going to be bored senseless watching this collection of mainly interviews with directors, critics and film conservationists.

Directors such as Martin Scorsese and musician Ravi Shankar hailed Ray's work as classics of world cinema, which influenced all who saw them.

A trilogy of Ray's work is hailed as “the single greatest achievement in film history,” and Scorsese says they were “one of the great cinematic experiences which were very important when I was making my own films. They were so foreign yet so personal”.

Apparently Ray, who never achieved fame at home because his realistic work was ignored by Bollywood, was as big a foreign film director in the US in the 1960's and 1970's as Felini.

Fast forward to 1992 when Ray is to receive a lifetime achievement Oscar, and the Academy of Motion Pictures could barely find enough surviving footage to put together a montage of his work.

This is the point of “The Song of the Little Road”: to pay tribute to Ray and to tell the story of how a group of aficionados was so appalled at the prospect that these great works could be lost forever that they about searching out what is remaining and restoring it.

It turned out that the prints and negatives of Ray's works were so badly deteriorated by the Indian climate - and constant use - to be barely viewable, so it was decided to send them to London to be restored. But disaster struck when a major fire occurred there, almost wiping out the catalogue.

Kumar uses a series of stills of his interviewees overlaid with sound, which is annoying at first and initially confirmed my fears that this was made for art house pseuds.

But there are enough beautiful yet poetically uplifting shots from Ray's work which features everyday people in the commotion of Calcutta's streets and surrounding countryside to make me want to seek out his films. This still feels like a film for real cinema enthusiasts, but if it points you, like me, in search of Ray's work, it is well worth a viewing.